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Taking CRM to the Next Level

Web-assisted relationship- and community-building for the pharmaceutical industry

Publication Date   December 2006
Publisher   Datamonitor
Product Type   Report
Pages   39
ISBN Number   not applicable
Product Code   DAT617
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Price £2,000.00

approximately: $3,531 | €2,536

Summary


Introduction

CRM is a business strategy by which a company seeks to maximize the value of its products by managing the customer relationship, with specific aims to boost customer retention and increase market share, while reducing the costs of sales, marketing and customer fulfillment. CRM is made necessary because of advances in Web-enabled technologies, which have changed the dynamics of sales and marketing.

Scope

  • Insight into how the view of CRM as a solely sales, marketing or fulfillment strategy is flawed and contributes to unrealistic expectations
  • Identification of the leading CRM vendors in the pharmaceutical industry
  • A discussion of how pharmaceutical companies can benefit from moving in the direction of adopting an enterprise-wide CRM strategy
  • Analysis of how online communities can be leveraged to improve CRM strategies

Highlights

CRM is not an out of the box software solution that can instantaneously recoup losses due to cutbacks in sales force and media saturation. CRM is instead a constantly evolving reassessment of the relative value of relationships with target groups and effectiveness of the mediums used to communicate with them.

The greatest demand on pharmaceutical CRM infrastructure is the ability to cover multiple touch points across a diverse customer base. In this respect, the pharmaceutical industry is unlike any other, faced with a wide and varied array of customers, each of whom interact to varying degrees and at various levels.

Predictive analytics are the most challenging aspect of any CRM strategy, but also potentially the most rewarding. Online communities can play a role in developing a successful predictive CRM strategy by enabling companies to monitor the evolving thought processes of their customers.

Reasons to Purchase

  • Identify how the pharmaceutical industry is evolving beyond traditional sales and marketing strategies toward enterprise-wide CRM
  • Understand how CRM can move beyond managing customer relationships towards community building and support
  • Evaluate key vendors and how they are shaping the future of pharmaceutical CRM

Content


  • Catalyst
  • Summary
  • Methodology
    • AnaLYSIS
    • An Introduction to the role of CRM in the pharmaceutical industry
    • Analytical and Operational CRM
    • Regulatory constraints and the nature of the products sold make pharmaceutical CRM unique
    • Defining the "C" in CRM for the pharmaceutical vertical
    • The "R" in CRM does not stand for "ROI"...
    • ...but ROI cannot be ignored
    • "Management" means much more than it used to
    • Dropping the "e" in eCRM
    • The view of CRM as a solely a sales, marketing or customer fulfillment strategy is flawed and contributes to unrealistic expectations and shortfalls in implementation
    • Drivers and resistors of CRM
    • CRM and the pharmaceutical sales force
    • CRM and marketing to key target groups
    • CRM and customer fulfillment
    • Customer fulfillment online: providing eSamples to physicians and consumers
    • CRM as a holistic business solution, rather than as a sales, marketing or fulfillment solution
    • The leading CRM vendors in the pharmaceutical vertical will combine industry experience with a focus on technology and functionality that meets specific needs rather than hard to define ROI targets
    • The Vendor Landscape
    • The Market Leader
    • Oracle (including PeopleSoft & Siebel Systems)
    • Case Studies: Novartis looks to Siebel for a CRM solution
    • Runners up
    • Salesforce.com
    • SAS
    • SAP
    • Unica
    • Microsoft
  • The Future Decoded
    • In the future, the focus of CRM will move beyond managing customer relationships towards community-building and support
    • Online Communities as a Tool of CRM
    • At a minimum, pharmaceutical companies should be using online communities as a market research tool
    • Greater lessons to be learned from online communities
  • Appendix
  • List of Figures
    • Definitions and abbreviations
    • References
    • Extended methodology
    • Datamonitor eHealth Physician Insight Survey 2005
    • Datamonitor eHealth Consumer Insight Survey 2005
    • Ask the analyst
  • List of Figures Figure 1: CRM ideally keeps customers involved in an ongoing relationship with a company
    • Figure 2: Pharmaceutical companies are unique in that they have to deal consistently with a diverse customer base, some of which have conflicting needs
    • Figure 3: Companies stuck in a sales force 'arms race' have consistently seen the value of the investment diminish
    • Figure 4: As much as one third of the costs of adopting a CRM solution have to be invested up front
    • Figure 5: Information from online medical journals and website is often accessed more frequently than information from pharmaceutical sales representatives
    • Figure 6: Early adopters of Internet-enabled sales solutions have seen increases in the length of time physicians are willing to engage in a sales or educational activity
    • Figure 7: Overall, patients are now seen as equally as influential at the point-of-care as pharmaceutical sales reps
    • Figure 8: Traditional resistors of CRM are loosing ground to changing market forces
    • Figure 9: Approximately 4 out of every 10 patients need to be incentivized in order to be most likely to fill a prescription
    • Figure 10: Providing services to physicians through the channels they prefer greatly increases the likelihood that a long-term relationship can be established and maintained
    • Figure 11: Websites are a great channel through which to fulfill consumers needs for information and to introduce them to new services and channels of communication
    • Figure 12: The CRM vendor market is beginning to stabilize, but remains highly competitive
    • Figure 13: Oracle's recent acquisitions of PeopleSoft and Siebel cements its place as the market leader within the pharmaceutical CRM vertical